Some of you might be thinking: “Why are you bringing politics into your writing career? Don’t you know that you’ll alienate part of your audience? You are a crazy person!”

Maybe!

If some people decide they don’t want to buy my books because I contributed a story to this, I’m okay with that. I’d rather have said something that nothing.

Guns are a touchy subject. Here’s my take, for what it’s worth: Putting aside the thorny issue of mass shootings—I’m a lifelong resident of New York City. The gun culture here is very different from, say, Alabama.

In Alabama someone might buy a gun to go hunting or as a hobby. In New York chances are, if someone has a gun, they would like to shoot you with it. Plus, I used to be a reporter covering crime, and I’ve seen first-hand the havoc guns can wreak on bodies and families.

So, I personally am not a great fan of guns. Clearly, there is a problem with our gun culture, which is something I think everyone except the NRA can agree on.

Last year some friends and I were walking through the East Village and passed Big Gay Ice Cream on East 7th. It can get pretty crowded, and on this particular night, there was a bouncer outside, working a rope to control the flow of customers.

I love writing about New York City, and I especially love writing about the city’s food culture. So for me, a bakery bouncer was very much a thing worth exploring.

The story turned out better than I could have hoped, in that sometimes I write stuff that’s supposed to be silly or over the top—and I wanted to do something a little more thoughtful.

Especially because, as a writer of mostly dark and crime-oriented fiction, I’ve been thinking a lot about things like guns: The use of them, the glorification of them, but more than that, the toll on human life, and what the loss of a life does to the world around us, even if we might not immediately notice.

I’m very happy with how it turned out. And I was especially thrilled when Publishers Weekly reviewed it and said this:

Many of the best selections are character driven, such as Joyce Carol Oates’ strangely hypnotic “Lorelei” and Rob Hart’s “Creampuff,” which offers a warm slice of New York City life.

Yes, this is me bragging a little. It’s an incredible, incredible honor to be cited like that, especially alongside an author like Joyce Carol Oates.

The book comes out on April 18. You can pre-order it, but I hear print copies are already showing up on doorsteps, and a few copies are currently sitting next to the register in The Mysterious Bookshop.

Rob Hart is the author of five novels, the short story collection Take-Out, and Scott Free with James Patterson. His next book, The Warehouse, has sold in more than 20 countries and has been optioned for film by Ron Howard. Click here to learn more.